Around the Circle This Week: October 12, 2018

A Powerful Blow: Our region in no way suffered the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Michael in the southeastern states, but Lake Superior did show quite a bit of its muscle on Wednesday, throwing splashes against the shore that were higher than Split Rock

Lighthouse (with the cliff, that's more than 184 feet up). Many photographers made spectacular images and videos of the power and the glory of the Lake, like these here by Sparky Stensaas. The waves did take a toll, however. In Duluth, Canal Park was closed to non-residents beyond the

DeWitt-Seitz Building when the roads became rivers. The already battered Lakewalk, just in the early stages of redo after storms in October 2017 and this spring, was again ripped asunder along parts of the boardwalk. The city’s interim chief administrator held a press conference talking about the damage, reported on by BusinessNorth. The Duluth News Tribune followed up on the costs and aftermath, including flooding and a backlog on maritime activity. Up Minnesota's North Shore in Grand Marais, flood waters seeped into the basement of the Cook County Historical Museum basement and staff scrambled to move items to dry floors. Wave-tossed debris cluttered city streets and Joe Friedrich of WTIP did a report from the streets.

On the Lake's south shore, overflows from the storm caused the release of wastewater into the Chequamegon Bay at Ashland, the 20th time in five years totaling more than 75 million gallons of sewage, according to Rick Olivo of the Ashland Daily Press.

The Blue Canoe: As the storm caused damage elsewhere, it also delivered a completely unexpected gift to a resident of Duluth's Park Point, according to a report on CBS3 Duluth. A couple of years ago, the blue canoe owned by Paul Kellner and his family went missing from the shore by their Park Point home. They figured it was either a victim of the Big Lake waves, carried off in the night, or of thieves, which had happened once before. As it turned out, a neighbor had just borrowed it - the "neighbor" being the Big Lake, which tossed the canoe right back onto their beach on Wednesday. “I don't know where the heck it’s been,” Paul told Briggs LeSavage. “It could have been aliens, for all I know. The gods of the Lake are giving us gifts. It’s just great.”

A Great Loss: It was with great sadness that we received the news of the death Wednesday of Davis Helberg, the former executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority and a longtime friend and contributor to Lake Superior Magazine, as well as a personal friend to the staff here. Davis has been battling an aggressive cancer. On Facebook, his wife, Stacey Carlson Helberg, noted that it was appropriate he passed away while Lake Superior raged, posting, "When you were weak, the storm was strong. When you were silent, the winds were howling. When you were frail, the lake was fierce. You were brave amid the fear, peaceful among the chaos, courageous and calm in the storm." Davis, a consummate storyteller and former newspaper reporter, started his maritime career in his teens. He led the Port Authority for nearly 25 years before his retirement. He was the 2003 recipient of our Lake Superior Magazine Achievement Award and we featured him in a profile by Bill Beck in 1999. A native of Esko, Minnesota, he helped to organize and write two recent books about its history and was a huge booster of the community and high school teams. The Helberg family has been tied so long to the town that the road on which he and Stacey live is named "Helberg." Another roadway named for him after his retirement is Helberg Drive on the working waterfront he so loved. In the garden beside the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center in Canal Park, a plaque with his image notes his service to the maritime industry. He was also a former chairman of the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association board. An obituary honoring Davis will be placed this weekend with memorial times. One of the best tributes that we know Davis himself would appreciate came from his daughter, Heidi Wendland, who posted: "There are many wonderful dads out there, but I thank God that He picked out Davis Helberg to be my dad."

Looking Good for the Lock: The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a plan to provide $922 million for a new lock in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, Todd Spangler reported for the Detroit Free Press. The long-anticipated project at the Soo Locks is part of a $4.4 billion water infrastructure spending package, already passed by the U.S. House. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill. Construction of the new navigation lock, once funded, could employ about 15,000 people, according to Todd. Great Lakes shippers and supporters have long pushed for a second lock able to accommodate the largest vessels on the Great Lakes, and join the existing Poe Lock at the Soo Locks. Todd noted that a 2016 Department of Homeland Security report showed a six-month closure of the Poe Lock could lead to a potential recession, depending on the time of year, closing factories and mines and halting auto production. There would be no adequate alternate way to get iron ore pellets to steel makers. Currently only the Poe Lock can handle the 1,000-foot ships that transport most of those pellets.

Golden Opportunities: Gold production at at Wesdome’s Eagle River Complex near Wawa rose 28 percent in the third quarter, Brian Kelly reports for the Sault Star. Brian writes that the Toronto-based Wesdome reported 19,795 ounces of gold was produced at the Eagle River underground mine and Mishi open pit, compared with 15,493 ounces in the third quarter of 2017. Through the first three quarter of this year, the Eagle River and Mishi sites produced 54,371 ounces of gold, an increase of 26 percent from 2017. Wesdome is “well positioned” to reach projected production of 70,000 to 75,000 ounces for the year, president and chief executive officer Duncan Middlemiss said in a press release. The graphic above shows mined out, existing and planned developments at the Eagle River Complex.

Paging Sophie: A 13-year-old student from Woodcrest Public School in Thunder Bay will be hanging out with the political heavy-hitters in Toronto for three weeks starting Monday when she starts work as a page to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Sophie Sutherland, an eighth-grader, will be a messenger on the floor. She earned the page position by submitting an application with an essay about her achievements, involvements and suitability for the job. She needed to study and learn the faces, names and locales for all 107 MMPs at Queen's Park. “The entire Woodcrest Public School community is extremely proud of Sophie for being accepted into this very unique and prestigious program,” says Woodcrest Principal AJ Keene. “We are looking forward to learning about her experiences when she returns following the completion of her term.”

Adoptable Light: Representatives of some of the nine groups that have indicated an interest in taking over management of the South Pier Breakwater Outer Light in Canal Park recently toured the lighthouse to assess its needs. It was officially listed as "available" by the General Services Administration in June. Definitely a "fixer-upper," the lighthouse interior paint is badly flaking. There is other damage, and a resident family of pigeons will need to be evicted. The foghorn is located on the structure, as is a working light that the U.S. Coast Guard will continue to maintain. One of the groups considering applying to take over the building – and filling out the 27-page application to the federal General Services Administration – is the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association, of which our editor, Konnie LeMay, is a board member. She took a photo of the green light and foghorn signal on top of the tower during the tour and learned an interesting fact about the foghorn. The fog alert is activated when a sensor on the building cannot shoot a "ping" out a certain distance. Problem is, some resident spiders have adopted the sensor as their home, constantly weaving a web in front of it and sometimes activating the foghorn even on the sunniest of days. (That issue will be resolved with a new system planned for the structure.) If no nonprofit or governmental entity adopts the lighthouse, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, it will be put up for public auction to private bidders, as was done with the South Pier Range Light tower near the Aerial Lift Bridge.